Book Review: Patriot Dawn – The Resistance Rises

Well this is my first book review so bear with me as there is a lot of ground to cover. If you do not know who Max Velocity is, you probably need to, here is a link to site (Click Here). I could regurgitate his qualifications and experience, but reading his site for that info would be a better option. I have been subscribed to his blog for awhile now and after getting totally fired up, I had to buy his latest book, Patriot Dawn: The Resistance Rises. I had read some other reviews, his view on the book, and was still surprised by its story and instructional quality. I believe that it is mandatory reading for anyone who believes that we are heading toward civil unrest, war, massive rioting, add your own superlative.

Logistics

One quality of Patriot Dawn: The Resistance Rises that I believe others have missed, is the importance of support. We are not talking of more combat ready individuals, but those who support from behind the lines, the auxiliary, rank and file patriots, and those within the system. So the premise of the book is that the USA has devolved into a state that values security over freedom, elections are a joke, then a major terrorist attack leads to more oppressive rules in the United States and a war in Iran (that doesn’t sound very far fetched). The previous decade has laid the groundwork for total control of the populace through unconstitutional laws and Executive Orders (sound familiar). Martial Law is enacted and everybody is under suspicion or treated as such. The global economy tanks so China, with nothing to lose, takes down the power grid of the United States through cyber-attacks.

When the food, water and government hand outs stop flowing, riots are the norm for most urban centers, before the worst of it stops, millions are dead. The ‘Regime’ now starts to step up shop with FEMA camps and declares all areas outside their immediate control, the contested areas and took to pacifying the rest of us. Military personnel are used to attack strongholds but many deserted to look after their families. A new Constitution is written, the ‘Homeland Charter’. So this book is your basic nightmare scenario with the only thing missing being a pandemic. If you loved Tom Clancy’s early novels which contained a good mix of story line, tech, and tactics. Max Velocity’s novel Patriot Dawn: The Resistance Rises provides a similar read, but from a grunt’s perspective in small unit tactics and insurgency warfare.

The main character is not ready to lay down, here is an excerpt from the back of the book, “Jack Berenger is a former Army Ranger Captain, living in northern Virginia with his family. Following the collapse, they fall foul of Regime violence and evacuate to the farm of an old Army friend. Jack is recruited into the resistance, to train the fledgling forces in the Shenandoah Valley. The fight begins. Resist.”

Resist

So that was enough to get me to buy it. Once I started reading it, it was hard to put it down. The way this book was written, especially during the fight coordination, made me want to tag pages and start highlighting stuff like a textbook. I have read many WCS (Worst Case Scenario) novels, maybe more than I should, but I learn something from each one. This one had me thinking about the realities of coming up against a larger, better equipped force and the role of the quiet supporter. Resistance fighters are the same as guerrilla fighters. Down through history we have always read about the indigenous resistance and this country has been on both sides of this equation. This story puts you right in the middle of a civil war, controllers vs freemen.

So here are the big X-factors that I took from the book. The use of FLIR by Regime forces. FLIR stands for Forward Looking Infrared. This technology is a force multiplier, meaning it really helps your team gain an advantage over an enemy. There is a battle scene that really hammers home the need to have or be able to avoid this tech. Throughout the book resistance fighters are looking to shield themselves from Regime aircraft, mostly Apache helicopters, using whatever natural cover that they can build. Unfortunately that requires a lot of digging most of the time. Now this next solution may be viewed as a shameless plug, but it appears to be very effective. Max has developed, with help from friends, a portable shield to be deployed quickly. It is a simple tarp lined with a thin layer of LDPE to mask body heat. The MVT Shield is on my list of items to procure, along with a FLIR Scout. Any governmental force will have plenty of this tech, so it just stands to reason that we should have it as well.

Next up, as mentioned before, the auxiliary. The old saying ‘That an army marches on its stomach’ is very factual. A resistance force will need the masses to support them or their mission will fail quickly. The most important things that those who cannot fight can do for those who do, is relaying information and supplying food, shelter, and weapons.

IMHO they are as important as those who risk their lives at the front. In reality the risk for being a collaborator is re-education camps, as described in the book, or death. So the moral of this part of the story is that everyone can ‘fight’ oppression. A huge factor will be defectors. Initially this sounds like a bad thing, until you take into consideration the situation. All military personnel take an oath to uphold the Constitution. When their leaders wipe their collective butt with that precious document, it only stands to reason that some will not stand for it. The ‘rub’ being, which ones do you trust? Spies come in all shapes and sizes.

Sorry for being slightly vague on details within the book, I don’t want to be a spoiler. Here is my soapbox moment. The whole story is premised on corruption within the system and Americans voting for these corrupt parties over and over. This last election cycle we saw a turnaround in the ‘power’ structure, but the bigger story is that less than half of registered voters actually showed up. A week later we celebrated Veteran’s Day. Let that sink in for a moment. I wonder how current and past military personnel feel about that statistic? It depresses the heck out of me. I truly believe that most people who throw their hat in the ring, starting at the local level, want to make their communities a better place. It seems as soon as they get to the state level of elected positions they have to compromise what they believe in to get the necessary funding to continue their attempt to make a difference. At that point, it is ‘tow the line’ or go home.